


Smoke and Lavender

by FlamingFlyingV



Category: Andromeda Six (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M, Firearms Training, Flirting, Spoilers for Ch4, no beta we die like King Fenris
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:48:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26488930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlamingFlyingV/pseuds/FlamingFlyingV
Summary: The silence that filled the cargo bay was just as deafening as the gunshot that preceded it
Relationships: Juniper "June" Nyux/Traveler
Comments: 4
Kudos: 43





	Smoke and Lavender

The silence that filled the cargo bay was just as deafening as the gunshot that preceded it.

"Huh."

"I'm, uh," I stammered sheepishly, struggling to hear my own voice over the ringing in my ears. "I'm going to assume that was not good."

June shrugged, gesturing out to the sight in front of us. An empty crate sat directly across the hold. The bright orange smiley face with angry eyebrows that was painted upon it glared back at us completely unharmed. Another crate, an innocent bystander several yards to the left, now sported a rather sizable hole in the front. The only thing making me feel relatively better about it was knowing it was at least empty. "I mean... Unless you meant to hit that one

"I was aiming for the angry face."

"... I don't think I've ever seen a trajectory like that." he muttered just barely within earshot.

With a defeated sigh, I lowered my stance with the handgun. "Sorry."

"It's okay, I'm just teasing you. Mostly." he said with a light chuckle. "You did say you've never shot a gun before, right?"

"Was never allowed to. I was lucky enough to learn fencing. Which I can assume doesn't translate over to firearms very well." I explained, biting the bitterness that wanted to surface. 

His kind smile didn’t falter which did make me feel a bit better. "I can't really say it does, but it's okay! If we can at least get you decent enough with something I'll consider it a win."

The bitterness I was feeling obviously wasn’t at fault of the gunman, just towards my situation. With tensions as high as they were after Cursa I wanted to help as much as I could. The captain had brought up the idea of teaching me to shoot before, but it took some time to get him to open up to the idea again. He only relented when I brought up that I only knew swordplay and Damon nearly choked on his morning coffee in laughter. It was okay to use the cargo bay to practice in lieu of an actual practice range as long as anything important got moved out of the way beforehand. All while Damon theatrically explained how sorry he was that he didn’t ‘have time to acquire a proper rapier when we last stopped at port’, which earned a sharp, but overall ignored glare in his direction.

My gaze fell to the pistol in my hand. As disheartened as I may have felt with the situation overall, I was glad June was the one teaching me. "Well, we can try to make things easier at least. Do you have anything smaller in your arsenal?"

He rubbed the back of his neck with an uneasy chuckle. "Uh, yeah. About that. That is the smallest one I have. Sorry."

If I couldn’t slump in defeat any more, I proved myself wrong once more, letting out a groan. "Awesome."

“Are you ready to try again?”

With a nod, I began to get situated in the firing stance he had shown me before. Feet shoulder-width apart, slightly leaning forward on my left leg with my knees bent. I once again lifted the pistol, keeping my arms as steady as they needed to be and glaring at the forsaken spray paint smiley face from down the iron sight.

Inhale.

Exhale.

With the squeeze of the trigger and another gunshot, a pain shot up my arms causing me to grit my teeth. I hissed out a rather unkind swear at myself, dropping my stance to rub my dominant arm. The sound of footfalls on metal preceded June trotting over to me in concern. “Are you alright Xandra?”

“I think so. Just sore.” I groaned out, maybe downplaying the pain a bit. “Did I do something else wrong?”

“You didn’t follow through with the shot.”

“Oh.”

“Do you want me to guide you through it again?”

“Please.” I nodded, getting back into place.

Instead of pulling out one of his own firearms and actually showing me like he had done before, he moved to my right side. “You’re going to want to keep a steady hold on it still so it doesn’t come back and hit you, but not completely still, as you found out.” he explained all while he reached his right hand towards mine. “May I?”

I nodded, expecting him to take the pistol but I was mistaken. His much larger hand made it’s way over mine to shadow the grip. A breath caught in my throat at the contact and I could only hope that he didn’t notice. “You’re going to want to follow upwards when you fire. Like this.”

Our arms in tandem to mock the motion of the shot. The logical part of me was saying that I needed to pay attention, be the star student I always had been with my studies and become the best princess turned mercenary I could be. But it was difficult to focus on anything else than his skin against mine and the heat radiating between us as he somehow managed to move in even closer.

“Go ahead. I’ve got you.” he softly assured. It was not the best time for a flutter to make itself known in my chest as I exhaled and squeezed the trigger again. The brunt of the shot was far less harsh and it actually managed to hit the painted crate, but still a ways from the face. He nodded in approval. “Good job, but you can do better.”

A fourth gunshot rang out, this time hitting one of the angry eyebrows. A calloused thumb ran over mine and I wasn’t sure if it was intentional or not. “See? You’ve got it.”

Hearing praise that I was not at all used to was getting to my head. In a moment of boldness I asked “So, am I proving to be a good student?”

June laughed in a way that nearly sounded like the wind got knocked out of him. “So far, yeah, you are.” he answered, his last laugh listing to a darker tone at the end “But that could change.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fanfic I've actually published since 2013 and I am feeling fantastic my dudes


End file.
